Scientists have made significant progress in developing cancer therapies that help patients across cancer types. However, they face limitations in determining the results of drug effectiveness, as well as ensuring even distribution among all cancer cells because of the highly compact nature of tumors. Researchers are working to change that by giving chemotherapy drugs a kind of chemical “signal” that allows them to be tracked inside of cells.

Researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine have developed a battery-free wearable patch that could help detect skin cancer earlier and more accurately, potentially saving lives by making screening more accessible and less invasive. The study was recently published in npj Biomedical Innovations.

An international research team led by the Medical University of Vienna has demonstrated for the first time that thyroid hormone plays a key role in the development and progression of prostate cancer. By blocking a specific thyroid hormone receptor, cancer growth was inhibited in both animal models and tumor cell cultures.

Prostate cancer relies on genetic “switches,” called enhancers, that can turn on tumor-promoting genes. Researchers at the University of Michigan Health Rogel Cancer Center have discovered histone H2B N-terminal acetylation (H2BNTac), an essential chemical mark of these enhancers. They further implicate two proteins, p300 and CBP, that add these marks, and along with the androgen receptor, turn on enhancers and promote prostate cancer growth.

Doctors and researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and UPMC have developed a new treatment for epilepsy patients who don’t respond to medication and aren’t candidates for surgery. Their approach, published in Nature Communications, uses deep brain stimulation (DBS) that is tailored to each patient’s unique brain wiring.

After being treated with an electronic eye implant paired with augmented-reality glasses, people with sight loss have recovered reading vision, reports a trial involving a UCL (University College London) and Moorfields Eye Hospital clinical researcher.